A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



forest proper, where no customary rights of com- 

 mon existed.^ In Northamptonshire, Geddington* 

 and Yardley were sometimes spoken of as 

 chases. 



The word ' park ' simply implies an enclosure 

 fenced with paling, and though a chase was more 

 often not enclosed at all, the real distinction be- 

 tween a pri\atc park and a chase is found in the 

 law applicable to them. The park of a subject' 

 was not within the purview of the forest law ;* 

 in the chase of a great noble the forest laws 

 were applicable, though not in their entirety.* 

 There would seem to have been no special legal 

 classification of beasts of the chase.* 



The warren was used in two senses, either to 

 signify the right of hunting, or the land affected 

 by such right. The fox, hare,^ and wild cat 

 were the usual beasts of the warren, and the 

 coney was properly included in the same cate- 

 gory. There were also fowls of warren, phea- 

 sants, partridges, and the like. 



The county of Northampton now boasts a 

 goodly number of private parks,* but there were 

 not many before the Elizabethan age. The royal 

 park at Moulton, an appanage of Northampton 

 Castle, is constantly mentioned, and existed as 

 early as the reign of Henry II. It was not dis- 

 parked until after the year 1531,' as in that year 



1 Cf. Ro^al Letters of Hen. III. (Rolls Ser.), i,p. 348. 

 ' Simili modo vidends sunt dominicx hayae et cha- 

 ciae domini regis, ubi nemo communicat.' 



^ By letters patent 18 Jan. 28 Ch.is. II. Gedding- 

 ton woods with certain lawns and plains within the 

 precinct were granted to Edward Lord Montagu and 

 his heirs, to be deemed a chase distinct from the forest 

 of Rockingham, and out of the jurisdiction and 

 boundaries of the said forest. 



* The word 'park' was frequently applied during 

 this period to portions of a royal forest fenced oft" for 

 special purposes ; the remarks in the text as to the law 

 applicable to a private park have no reference to any 

 such parcel of a forest in the strict sense. 



* The p.irk was protected by the law of trespass 

 and especially by the Statute of Westminster, 1275. 



5 The subject is carefully discussed by G. J. Turner. 

 ^ekct Pleas of the Forest, p. clx. 



* Man wood's classification is derived from the sport- 

 ing distinctions drawn in the tract of Twici (more 

 correctly William Twiti), who wrote in the reign of 

 Edward II. 



1 The exceptional status of the hare at Somerton 

 has already been noticed. After 1338 the roe was 

 also a beast of warren. 



* For a list of parks, see V.C.H. Northants, i. p. 133. 

 ' Probably not till much later, as the following 



references, which we owe to the courtesy of the 

 Rev. R. M. Serjeantson, seem to indicate. 'That the 

 townshippes of Walgrave,Crannesley, Moulton, Orling- 

 bere, Hannington, and dyverse other townshippes do 

 paye a rent towards the reparations of the wall of 

 the said parke.' (Dep. taken at Kettering 1 1 Aug., 

 2 Edw. VI., now in Kingsthorpe Church Chest.) 

 1587, 'It. For goinge to Molton parck to tacke order 

 for the repere of it, xxij"".' 1588, ' Paid to Molton 

 park wall of the grene 5^.' (Burton Latimer, Church- 



Sir John Mordaunt, Surveyor-General of the 

 Woods and Forests, was charged by royal mandate 

 to write to ' the officers of our forest of Sawcey 

 and of our park of Moulton,' commanding them 

 to deliver to John Hartwell, Esq., and Richard 

 Wale, Gent, ' such and as many oaks, conven- 

 able for posts and Rayles with the Lops, Tops and 

 Bark of the same,' as shall be sufficient for en- 

 larging the park at Hartwell, and making a new 

 lodge there.' ^^ The warrens of Wittering, Help- 

 ston, and Sywell are mentioned by Morton.^' 



The year 1301 has already been mentioned 

 as a convenient landmark in the history of the 

 forests. Thenceforward, in spite of many new 

 laws and the amendments to those already ex- 

 isting, the forest administration gradually but 

 surely decayed. But the exigencies of space 

 will not allow us to trace the legal changes under 

 Edward III. and his successor, or to analyse the 

 extant records of the fourteenth-century Forest 

 Courts. There are the usual complaints of the 

 conduct of the forest officers, and in the year 

 1 33 1 we hear of the Commission of Oyer and 

 Terminer to inquire as to the conduct of Robert 

 de Veer, steward of Rockingham Forest, and 

 constable of the castle, who seems to have been 

 at feud with the Abbot of Pipewcll.^^ 



During the period when the throne was held 

 by kings of the House of Lancaster no new 

 legislation was effected. But when once the 

 country began to recover from the wasteful 

 effects of the Wars of the Roses, a very impor- 

 tant step was taken in 1482, by the passing of 

 An Act for Inclosing of IVoods in the Forests, Chases, 

 and purlieus (22 Edw. IV., Cap. 7). This may, 

 perhaps, be worth quoting ' in extenso,' as par- 

 ticular mention is made in it regarding a 

 Northants forest : — 



' Also our said Lord the King, considering 

 that divers Subjects having Woods growi.ng in 

 their own ground within the Forest of Rocking- 

 ham, and other Forests and Chases within the 

 realm of England, or purlieus of the same, which 

 have cut their said Wood, because the same Sub- 

 jects might not before Time cut nor inclose their 

 said ground, to save the young Spring (i.e., cop- 

 pice, or seedling growth) of their Wood so cut, 

 any longer Time than for Three Years, the same 

 young Spring hath been in Times past and daily 

 is destroyed with Beasts and Cattle of the same 

 Forest, Chases, and Purlieus, to the great Hin- 

 drance, as well of his said Subjects, as of his 

 Deer, Vert, and Venison in their covert, and 

 otherwise, to the likely destruction of the same 



wardens' Accounts). According to Baker, Hist, of 

 Northants, i. 53, the freehold rights of Moulton Park 

 and Warren remained vested in the Crown till 10 

 Charles I. 



10 Halsted's Geneal. p. 551, cited by Baker, Hist, of 

 Northants, i. 52. 



11 Nat. Hist, of Northants (1782), p. 10. 



12 Pat. 5 Edw. III. mm. l^d. and lb d. 



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